Outreach Vietnam held their Lunar New Year social on Monday, January 27.
“Lunar New Year is not just about money,” Club President Sophia Nguyen said. “It’s for having luck for the rest of the year and prosperity. Just like being with your family and your loved ones; that’s what Lunar New Year is about.”
One of the biggest holidays in Vietnamese culture, Lunar New Year has special aspects and traditions that make it unique from other new year celebrations.
“You eat food like moon cakes,” Historian Dillan Dang said. “Watch cultural dances like lion dance, go to temple, wear your colorful patterned áo dài [traditional Vietnamese dress].”
“Lunar New Year in Vietnam is celebrated for a whole month,” Nguyen said. “We go all out; all your family members come over and you chúc mừng [wish well for the new year] everybody.”
Arguably one of the more popular traditions of Lunar New Year, Outreach members were able to make their own red envelopes at the social.
“We made red envelopes, which are little packets of money that are usually red or yellow in color,” Dang said. “Usually your peers or family members give them to you as a sign of good luck and wishing you prosperity.”
The second activity the members did was sharing their new year’s resolutions and seeing who might have had common goals.
“We also did a word map,” Nguyen said. “[The members] scanned a QR code and they put all their new year’s resolutions on there, so we got to see everyone’s new year’s resolutions on a word map.”
Lunar New Year celebrations are not complete without food, which the Outreach officers kept in mind as they selected Asian food to bring to the social.
“We had lots of food,” Dang said. “We had cans of boba, shrimp chips, rice crackers, Hi-Chews, and milk candy.”
As for the future of Outreach Vietnam, the club is preparing for their annual fundraiser, Penny Wars, by sending out donation bottles to teachers to keep in their classrooms. Officers for next year will likely be selected toward the end of the year.
“I hope I’m passing it down to maybe a junior or sophomore and I hope it goes on for many years to come and it never stops,” Nguyen said.
